The sun finally chased away the darkness that dominated the stone forest. At the same time, the beasts that were cursed to never see the light, or at least the ones that survived, had now returned to the deepest shadows that could be found.
Nevigne turned to her side when she felt a shift. Fidelis had just woken up.
He looked at her with glazed eyes and said: "Good morning."
Nevigne got up from the rock and dusted off the back of her long skirt.
"Good morning," she replied. "Are you ready to move?"
Fidelis pushed himself up from the stone ground and brushed the dust from his coat. "My back's a bit sore but yeah. Let's go."
As they were leaving the clearing where they spent the night, Fidelis saw many dead monsters lying on the ground. They were brutally burned down and dismembered as though they encountered the most ruthless monster there was. When the sunlight touched the carcasses, they began turning into stone. By the time the petrification process was finished, the area was filled with rubble. Because Nevigne didn't just kill the monsters. She wasted mana to destroy their bodies until they were shredded into small pieces.
Fidelis glanced at Nevigne who didn't even bat an eye. She casually walked past the creatures she had decimated.
'That is easier than letting go, huh?' he thought to himself.
Just how much pain has this elf been carrying all these years?
While walking, Fidelis thought of a way to lighten up the mood. He partially blamed himself because he fell asleep mid conversation. If he had accompanied her through the night she wouldn't have spiraled into the path of violence.
'Now she has even less mana,' he thought, dismayed. How was he supposed to rely on her for everything in this situation?
All of a sudden, Fidelis spoke.
"Still, I would not expect that one of the strongest beings on this planet was once a college professor."
Their plan to get her to teach again was quite reasonable in his view. Though it might require a little push from external factors.
She sighed. "Speak for yourself. Why was someone like you tending bar?"
Fidelis snickered. "I get to sneak out a few barrels for myself. Who would pass on getting to try all the delicious wine from across the galaxy?"
Annoyed, Nevigne walked faster to try and leave Fidelis behind.
"Hey, wait up! Don't scrape your leg again, now." the archangel jested. At least she was in a better mood now...
Fidelis eventually caught up to Nevigne. When he looked at her face, she appeared to be in deep thought.
"Are you worried that we might fail?" he asked her.
Nevigne looked at Fidelis and then back at her path before answering. "With you here, I'm sure we won't fail."
"Then what's on your mind?" he asked.
After pondering it, Nevigne answered while looking at her path. "I'm just thinking about how selfish it is. I'm helping them for my own benefit but they'll feel indebted to me anyway."
The archangel glanced at her and waited for her to continue.
"And because of that, this self-fulfillment I'm after is in jeopardy," she added.
Fidelis simply laughed at her and said: "You think too much, Nevigne. Sometimes you have to just breathe it in as it is."
"Easy for you to say," she retorted.
"Trust me. Your plan will work," he declared.
Moments later, they finally saw the line where the stone trees ended. Nevigne sighed in relief as she didn't have to be worried about injuring herself anymore.
As they were passing the last giant tree statues, Nevigne and Fidelis looked back at the forest of stone once more. For both of them, "this place held an enormous weight in their memories, albeit for different reasons.
"You made this, didn't you?" Fidelis mumbled loud enough for Nevigne to hear.
"I did."
A few seconds of silence filled the air.
"You did it to protect the kingdom," he said.
This unbreakable forest that served as a barrier against monsters turned into a prison when God lost Its mind. With the citizens unable to leave the kingdom and unable to produce food, Fidelis witnessed the most horrifying way for a civilization to fall.
Humans... humans... Why did God create them this way?
"And it was also the very reason why it's gone now," she replied before turning her back on the strange forest and walking away towards the elevated outcropping at the end of the stone forest.
Fidelis sighed and then whispered under his breath: "Stop blaming yourself for everything."
The two began to walk away from the Nevin Stone Forest, one of the many wonders in the world of Eden.
During the past few hours, Nevigne was slowly recovering her mana. The process was further slowed down because she had to consume a fraction of it back to keep her hunger and thirst level low.
But now that they were out of the lifeless rock forest, Nevigne could finally find something edible.
Most of the animals that once lived on Eden had gone extinct, except for the few who had adapted and evolved to the decaying world. The native plants had also evolved into something completely different, life forms that could survive in constant pollution and compete with gigantic fungi that were slowly eating the world from the inside out.
Because Eden wasn't being kept alive by nature's laws alone, but by magic as well. Once this magic is exhausted, the balance of this world will collapse, and the planet will be completely uninhabitable.
Beyond the stone forest, there was a huge expanse of land surrounded by bald mountain ranges. The barrens were occupied by a forest of tree-sized mushrooms, abandoned alien infrastructure and buildings that surviving creatures used as home. From the top of the final rock outcropping where Nevigne and Fidelis stood, the landscape looked like a civilization punished by god itself. In truth, it was simply the traces of the scavengers that had finished harvesting life in this part of the continent.
This world used to be the most beautiful of all. Now it rotted before her very eyes.
Nevigne looked back at Fidelis who stopped behind her.
"How's your mana recovery going? Can we fly over this shithole?" he asked.
She looked back at the disheartening scenery.
"No, unfortunately," she said, her grip to her staff tightening. "We're gonna have to find food in this shithole."